Paleo tweaks

Found a great tweak to my go-to coleslaw recipe. Coleslaw is my favorite way to eat cabbage, although the stir-fry cabbage I made last week was pretty amazing. (This, from someone who had a sort of okay-I'll-eat-it-because-it's-a-vegetable-and-vegetables-are-supposed-to-be-good-for-you attitude.) The coleslaw sauce recipe came out of a gluten-free cookbook, and was so simple to remember: equal parts mayonnaise, sugar, and white vinegar, whisked together. I 'd add a pinch of salt and a little white pepper to that. Creamy coleslaw perfection.

Okay, so how to make this Paleo friendly? Homemade mayo, check. Raw apple cider vinegar, check. Sugar?

I thought about stevia, but didn't really want to go there. My past experience experimenting with the stuff didn't seem too promising for this recipe.

Trying to go completely sugar free... but finally broke down (don't want the cabbage in the fridge to go moldy from sitting there) and tried honey in the recipe today, as in (for a wedge of cabbage, shredded)

1 TBS mayo
1 TBS raw apple cider vinegar
1 TBS raw honey

It made for a flavorful dressing -- didn't even need the salt and pepper. The honey was very strong, and can probably be cut down to a teaspoon or a little more. And of course I'm not eating as much honey as is there in the sauce because when the coleslaw is gone, there's still sauce left on the plate. So while it's not exactly cutting out sugar, it is cutting way down, and substituting raw honey (which has its own health benefits).

You can read on, or ignore the rest, which is mainly medical musing and a little background as to why I'm doing this "Paleo" way of eating, or trying to, anyhow.

***

Feeling my way here... I've been in a lot more pain lately, over and above (don't you love redundancy?) what the water kefir has been suppressing...

(Digression: How do I know what the water kefir is suppressing? Because of what happens when I don't drink it, if I didn't get around to harvesting the latest brew and due to our busy schedule, have to run out the door without my morning cuppa.)

Anyhow, have begun trying to eat according to "Paleo autoimmune" guidelines, more than I was when I was just following Paleo guidelines. Something that I hadn't cut out before were the nightshades (specifically tomatoes and peppers -- I can take or leave eggplant), nuts, and eggs. The earlier stuff involved in transitioning to Paleo-style eating as defined by Robb Wolf  and other people I've been "listening to" (as in, reading books and websites), well, that wasn't so hard, considering that our kitchen has been gluten-free for over a year now, and over the past months I've been experimenting with dairy alternatives as well.

As a matter of fact, I had been eating a lot more eggs lately, especially since cutting out GF oatmeal and other GF grains. Eggs are relatively cheap protein, and since we get free-range eggs from friends with chickens they ought to be fairly healthy. However, the increase in joint pain this past week makes me wonder -- am I reacting to the increase in eggs in my diet?

Need to get a handle on this so I can function again. In case I didn't mention it before, I tried the medical route the last time my joints, especially my knees, were this painful. All the doctor wanted to do was throw -- what are they called? NSAIDs? -- drugs at the problem to mask the pain, and then when the damage had progressed far enough do knee replacement surgeries.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad the medical people are out there and available with some sort of "solution." I'd just like to avoid drugs (I looked up the side effects of what he prescribed. Scary.) and surgery if at all possible. I thought that the water kefir would be enough -- it was enough, for months. But something has changed and so I'm changing my attack plan.

If something in my diet is causing the pain, and it's as simple as changing my diet to eliminate the pain (or cut it way down to manageable levels once more), well then, I'd much rather do that than take pills which significantly increase my possibility of stroke and heart attack and I forget what else.

Have been egg-free for only a day -- oops, no I haven't. Mayo has egg in it. Will have to investigate homemade eggless mayo, if such a thing is possible.

Sigh. And yet, it'll be worth it, if it works.

Selah

According to Wikipedia:

Selah (Hebrew: סֶלָה‎, also transliterated as selāh) is a word used 74 times in the Hebrew Bible that means GOD HAS SPOKEN.  – it used 71 times in the Psalms and three times in Habakkuk  – and is a difficult concept to translate. (It should not be confused with the Hebrew word sela‘ (Hebrew: סֶלַע‎) which means "rock.") It is probably either a liturgico-musical mark or an instruction on the reading of the text, something like "stop and listen". Selah can also be used to indicate that there is to be a musical interlude at that point in the Psalm. The Amplified Bible translates selah as "pause, and think of that". It can also be interpreted as a form of underlining in preparation for the next paragraph.

I used to wince at red lights. Okay, I'd more than wince. I'd complain, usually inwardly, but sometimes aloud. "Oh, no!" you'd hear me say. "Not another red light!" And truthfully, sometimes it seemed (or seems) that I'd hit one red light after another. "These lights are so badly timed," I'd grouse. I'd fret about poor fuel efficiency. I'd worry about being -- not just late, but -- later.

I have a bad habit of being too much of an optimist, not allowing extra time in transit for such things as red lights, construction, traffic jams, and that's the kind of thing that makes you late. I'm getting better...

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand. One day, while sitting at a red light, it came to me. Stewing was a poor use of my time. Did it get me anything? (Other than aggravated, that is.) No. Obviously.

What if I were to use red lights profitably? How could I use them profitably?

Give thanks in all things. While it may seem silly to you, it came to me (while sitting at a red light) that I could be using red lights as a time to praise. To meditate on Scripture. To contemplate my blessings. To give thanks. (See 1 Thess. 5:18 and Eph. 5:20)

The idea of "selah" seemed to fit. I'd heard a definition of "selah" in a sermon some time ago; the preacher had called it a time to pause and reflect on what had just been said (in the Psalm we were reading), or the deep breath before the dive into the next section, or both.

Practicing "selah-ness" at red lights has totally changed my driving attitude. Now instead of an "oh, no!" reaction to a yellow light announcing a red soon to follow, I (usually) am reminded that God is there in the midst of my busyness, my hurry. It's a sort of tug on my spirit, a signal to slow down and think about what's really important.

I'm sure it's done my blood pressure some good, too.

Glad it's Friday...

Coming off a nasty cold (as is Middlest -- I think I caught hers). Finally feeling some energy again. So, today will be something of a catchup day. I have to be careful not to overdo and consequently relapse. Add to that the fact that it's so chilly, it's hard to stay warm short of turning the heat on again. (And we did turn the heat on earlier in the week, funny thing to do in May but when you have sick people, you've got to keep them warm!)

The weather all week has been more like March than May. After the summery weather early in the month, we were all ready for summer, but summer, it seems, is not quite ready for us...

Have you been reading the 30 Day organizing series at The Happy Lil Homemaker? I just stumbled across it this morning. Just might be the thing for the month of June. Will let you know.

HM Review: My Home School Grades

Note: Our family received a free subscription to My Home School Grades for this review. Opinions are our own. No other compensation was involved.

To start with, I have to admit that I find transcripts terrifying and the idea of assigning grades, much less keeping track of them, paralyzing. There's something intimidating about writing it all down. My early homeschool record-keeping took place in fits and starts, books read, narrations, things checked off a list. I can't tell you how many times I started with the best of intentions, only to sputter out a few weeks into the process. If you were to look at my records, you'd wonder about our girls' education.

Standardized test scores say they were/are getting some kind of education. The younger two have tested at the top of the scale over the years. (Youngest's final state-mandated test is coming up next year, and she's very happy to see the end in sight.) Eldest is special needs and always struggled with academics. Frankly, I didn't worry too much about a transcript for her. Just learning as much as possible was a good goal.

Transcripts -- the "love language" of colleges (Lee Binz)

I attended an online seminar in creating transcripts, taught by Lee Binz. One of the things she said that struck me is that transcripts are really the way that you communicate with a college that might be considering your student for admission.

Granted, none of ours are interested in college right now. They hear about massive college debt, for one thing, and people having trouble finding jobs even with college degrees. None of them is interested in being a doctor, lawyer, or engineer at this point in their lives. Don't get me wrong, they're not aimless drifters with no plans for the future. It's just that their plans don't necessarily require four more years of academic studies.

Still, they might choose to go to college someday. Add to that, they have been learning an awful lot over the years, of history, geography, literature, science, and yes, even math. I think they could hold their own against their peers. It seems a disservice, not to document their learning somehow, and portfolios and transcripts are the current way to do that.

What I needed was something easy to use, intuitive, that would lead me gently by the hand despite my intimidation.

Enter My Home School Grades...

Okay, more True Confession time here. I did not volunteer to do this review. (Did you know that oftimes reviewers volunteer/beg/plead/submit requests for review products?) I said I'd help out if another reviewer was needed. I really would have preferred, ostrich-like, to have kept my head buried in the sand for another few months of blissful ignorance.

(Do you know how hard it is to put a transcript together from fading memory?)

Of course, the Lord knew what I needed, even though it was not what I wanted. He knew that I had been slipshod in keeping records, and that putting together a transcript for Middlest to graduate in a couple of years would have been even more agonizing than pulling together her records right now.

When I received the link to My Home School Grades with word that I had been picked to review the program, I dutifully signed up for an account -- easy! -- and started to play around a bit. I entered information for all three of the girls, added a few classes, thought about activities, exited the program, and managed to forget about it until the review deadline was looming.

In the meantime, I took Lee Binz' online transcripts class, which helped a lot with some of my confusion. (Like, how do you record high school level work done earlier than 9th grade? How do you record college-level work done in high school? How do you actually assign credits for work? How do you figure out grades?) Which means, when I finally got back to My Home School Grades I was a little more confident. I added in lots more classes, a whole slew of activities -- volunteering, choir, that sort of thing), even... gasp... assigned grades.

User helps -- such as video tutorials

Mind you, I did all this without even checking out the tutorial videos available on the site. I was able to use the site without the tutorials -- the whole thing is pretty intuitive. However, I found (afterward) that the videos are very helpful and gave me a much better idea of the scope of this simple-seeming program. It's amazing how much you can do!

The tutorials currently available show you how to add a student, a class, or activity, and how to generate a transcript from the information you add. You can watch them at the My Home School Grades website to get a better idea of the program.

Powerful features

For such a simple-seeming program, My Homeschool Grades offers a variety of features. You can keep a record of your child's learning from kindergarten through grade 12 (and beyond, with community college dual enrollment). There are several options for adding a class. The lesson plan option allows you to choose a particular curriculum (in which case lessons are automatically added) or a custom curriculum (which allows you to create your own lesson plan).

As you can see from the figure above, the program allows you to use weighted grading, in an easy, visual format.

You can also add classes that receive an overall letter grade or pass-fail mark, and there's an option for indicating dual-enrollment where college and high school credit are earned at the same time.

Adding activities uses the same method as adding classes -- drop down menus, intuitive visual feel. In this way, you can document volunteer work, extracurricular activities, choir, band, sports, 4H, and more. You can choose to include these on a transcript, or leave them off, but in any event, you have a record of activities on file. 

Transcript creation, at the click of a button

 Well, it's just a little more complicated than that. After all, you have to enter all the information that's going to appear on the transcript. What My Home School Grades does is arrange it all in a professional-looking format. It looks something like this on the screen:

Click the "Print" button to print out a copy. You have the option of adding the graduation date and the student's SSN to the transcript before printing; however, this information is not stored. (I really like that the SSN is not stored!)

Ordering details

My Homeschool Grades is offering a 14-day free trial, so I urge you to check it out for yourself. A lifetime membership is $49.99 and covers all the students in your family. No matter where you are in your homeschool journey, convenient, efficient record-keeping is just a few mouse clicks away.

 

HM Review: Waterproof Bible!

Note: Our family received a copy of the Waterproof Bible like the one pictured here for review. Opinions are our own. No other compensation was involved.

Here is a product that meets a need I didn't even know I had... though I've had thoughts along this line every time we've gone camping. Another thing... I love to read in the bath, but there's no way I'd take my precious, marked-up, Bible into the bathtub, with its leather cover and thin pages. I already know it's not waterproof. When it was fairly new (more than two decades ago now), Eldest was a toddler and took a fancy to the pretty ribbon page marker. She explored everything by putting it in her mouth, and... suffice it to say, the ribbon was not colorfast and left burgundy splotches on the pages.

Compact, but readable

The Waterproof Bible sitting in front of me as I type this doesn't look or feel all that different from other slimline Bibles I've handled. The cover and pages have something of a silky feel. At first glance, the pages seem as thin as the delicate pages in my personal Bible. Granted, what I have here is the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs so it shouldn't be all that bulky anyhow. At 4-1/4" x 7" and a little over half an inch thick, this 342-page softcover is compact enough to fit in my purse. The full Waterproof Bible with all the Old Testament as well is a little larger in all dimensions, and has about twice the number of pages.

The print is small, 7 point, but clear and readable. (The publisher offers a bookmark magnifier in their shop (click on Accessories) if you need one.) The shiny pages might present a little glare if you read in bright sunlight, but we didn't notice a problem with glare when we passed the Bible around during our regular Bible reading times.

Study helps are minimal. There's no concordance, for example, or extensive cross references. I like the footnotes, which include translation notes as well as references when Old Testament passages are quoted, so you can go to the original passage and read it in context while digging deeper.

...but can you write in it?

That was one of my first questions. I mean, if it resists water and mud, surely it's going to resist ink and highlighter? Such a Bible would be handy for camping and reading, but not so easy to interact with.

However, I'm happy to report that you can write on the pages (pencil and ballpoint are recommended) and highlight passages with colored pencil or dry highlighters (you can find dry highlighters in the publisher's shop at the link above). Best of all, the pages don't bleed through! You can highlight or mark on a page without having it affect the text on the other side of the page.

Sturdy!

I held my breath and opened the Waterproof Bible flat -- something I avoid with softcover books, unless they have a "lay flat" binding. I pressed it down for good measure as I read, turned over a few pages, read again, turned to another section, and finally closed the book. I felt like a criminal, a maimer of books... until I examined the back of the spine. There were no tell-tale creases to give mute testimony to my careless handling.

You may laugh at me and call me a book fanatic (I prefer the term bibliophile, sounds so much better, doesn't it?) but I actually trained my children in the fine art of reading paperbacks, cracking them open just enough to be able to read the print, and no farther, and never leaving a book on its face, to avoid breaking the spine. If you see creases on the back of a paperback, it means that eventually pages are going to start falling out. I have no such worries with the Waterproof Bible. I have the feeling it will last a long time, just as its publisher promises.


The Waterproof Bible is available from Bardin & Marsee Publishing and Christian bookstores (there's a "find a retailer" feature at the publisher's website). There are ESV, KJV, NKJV, NIV, and NLT versions, in a variety of cover choices. Full Bible versions are $44.95, New Testament/Psalms/Proverbs versions are $24.95. For an additional $7 you can have your Bible imprinted to personalize it with a name or initials.